MUCK SPREADING MUST CONTINUE - HEATH

4.07.00pm GMT Sat 26th Jan 2008

David Heath, MP for Somerton and Frome, secured a debate in the House of Commons on the Government's proposed regulations to the management of slurry on Tuesday. The Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Phil Woolas MP, offered slight encouragement to Mr. Heath as he appeared to recognise that there was a problem with the current proposals.

Commenting David said:

"I secured this debate in Westminster Hall because I had been contacted by a number of constituents who expressed concerns about the effect of the proposed regulations on the agriculture industry.

Somerset has some of the best dairy land in the country but many of the people who farm it will find themselves facing mounting costs to comply with the new regulations governing the spreading of slurry.

The lasting benefits to the environment will be negligible, particularly when compared to the costs incurred by an already overstretched farming industry. These expensive and unnecessarily overburdensome regulations will not achieve their goal of a hugely significant fall in the level of nitrates in our soil.

The question marks over the proposals, their implications for working farmers in the cost of slurry storage and the changes to working practices, should at the very least result in a postponement of the introduction of the regulations, currently due in April.

The Government can improve the design of the regulations to make them much friendlier to our farmers. After a difficult few years, the current proposals would make it even worse and we could risk losing yet more Somerset dairy farmers."